Work Text:
“They want me to find a liaison.” Fox sneers, downs the drink in his hands and winces.
The batch this time around was more like paint-thinner than anything. He huffs, reaches for his caf mug.
“If it bothers you so much,” Colt snarks, and how anyone thinks that he’s the responsible one will never cease to amaze Fox, “Then just choose someone you won’t have to interact with all that much. It’s not like some of the Jedi come back to Coruscant often. There’s too few of them and some of them are stationed so far out it’s impractical.”
Fox huffs, “Not the fucking point.”
The Guard doesn’t need a liaison, they handle themselves just fine, serve their Republic well, and they’re close enough to the Jedi temple that the whole idea is redundant anyways.
But the Senate had an idea and they were so caught up in their own ego’s and brilliance, patting themselves on the karking backs for their generosity and forethought, that none of them had bothered to ask before telling Fox that he needed to find a liaison to help improve conditions for the Guard.
It had been more than a little infuriating.
Colt rolls his eyes, “It’s not that bad, you’re being dramatic.”
Fox raises an eyebrow, “Dramatic, really? After all the osik I hear? I’m not fucking around with the Force bullshit, we do just fine without it.”
Colt winces at that, tilts his head in concession, “Alright, fair enough, you get used to it after awhile but—”
They share a look.
Yeah, Fox was determined to keep that craziness as far from the Guard as he could given that they already had to deal with the Temple and the Jedi there were bad enough. He wasn’t exactly eager to see what the rest of the Jedi would get up to.
Especially not after the osik he’s heard about the 212th and 501st.
Colt rubs a hand over his hair, “They’re pushing for it though?”
Fox grimaces, nods, and Colt huffs, gets a look on his face that Fox knows far too well. He has long since learned to either stage a strategic retreat when he sees that face or viciously attack first before whatever plot is hatching can be put into play.
“You know,” Colt starts and Fox has a Bad Feeling about this, “General Ti almost never goes back to the core, she’s stationed here on Kamino indefinitely.”
Fox blinks, raises an eyebrow, “And that’s your solution?”
Colt shrugs, “It won’t be like if another Jedi was in charge, at most it would be holo calls and such, you wouldn’t have to deal with all the bureaucracy osik in-person might lead to.”
Fox huffs but he gives it a thought and it does seem like the best option.
He shrugs, “Alright.”
And that’s the end of that.
Fox files the paperwork and by the end of the rotation, General Shaak Ti is the official Jedi Liaison for the Coruscant Guard.
It changes very little in the long run.
There is now of course, the weekly holo meetings, but they are a necessary evil for this.
And, well, General Ti is kind, and she seems to care for the men, want the best for them, she is funny and sweet and gradually the meetings are less of a necessary evil and more of something to look forward too.
They spend a few hours talking about any updates, any problems, the both of them sitting at their desks and going over things. And towards the end there is room for talk other than business.
It’s nice, and Fox actually….enjoys it.
It’s a sort of novel feeling, one that he relishes in, though he would never be so presumptuous as to ask to comm her outside of the meetings.
He knows his place and his duty, and a fondness for the General is no excuse for insubordination and rudeness.
It doesn’t stop Colt’s smart-ass comm messages.
Fox is resigned to constantly being the only brother with any sense of maturity, it’s a hard burden to carry, but someone in this fucking galaxy needs to and considering the amount of signatures he’s been basically ordered to forge, it’s definitely not anyone in the fucking Senate.
His comm pings again and Stone smirks.
Fox sighs and takes a long pull of caf from his mug
General Ti steps into the room, regal and tall and beautiful.
Thorn nudges Thire awake and Colt’s helmet tilts in that particularly annoying way he has when he’s amused.
Fox’s eyes drift back to the General and her soft smile and the teeth that glint just so in the light.
“Careful there, vod,” Stone mutters over the comms, because he thinks he’s karking hysterical and Fox apparently hasn’t broken him of it yet, “you’re staring. A brother might get ideas.”
Fox grins, sharp for all that Stone can't see it because of his bucket, responds with a perfectly pleasant, “Hope you like cleaning the mess hall with a toothbrush, for the next month.”
The fucker laughs, like Fox is joking.
Thorn, who has officially proven Fox’s new favourite and the only fucking brother with a shred of common sense, elbows Stone hard with a viciously hissed, “Shut your mouth vod.”
Colt, the fucker twitches with mirth and gives nothing else away.
Fox narrows his eyes, a good old friendly spar is what’s called for here.
The General smiles, “Commander Fox, it’s a pleasure to get to meet you in person, I find that though our talks are riveting, there is only so much one can discover within that short time.”
Thire lets out a strangled noise over the comms and Stone makes a triumphant sound, “Pay up, Thire,” he hisses, like he’s forgotten Fox can hear every karking word.
Fox nods, “Of course, sir, I agree.”
Shaak grins, “I’m glad, and I know Colt speaks of you often.”
Fox’s mind does a stutter and he tips his head slightly in Colt’s direction — who is currently pretending to be very invested in something or another and unable to hear a word the karking asshole — and narrows his eyes, “Does he now?”
The General chuckles, canines flashing in the lights and something amused glittering in her eyes, “Yes, quite.”
Fox twitches, ignores every single one of his traitor underling’s and their snickering and nods his head, “Well then, it’s nice to get to meet you in person as well General.”
General Ti smiles again and it might be his imagination but there’s a flash of her teeth there that makes it shade towards something challenging, the twinkle in her eyes that Fox has come to learn means she’s joking, “Please Commander how many times do I need to say it, call me Shaak.”
Colt’s shoulders shake. Yes, a nice, completely amicable spar between two brothers will do just fine.
The snickering over Fox’s comms will be dealt with later, when there are less important things to do.
Thorn puts his head in his hands with a groan and a muffled, “Di’kuts.”
Thorn, Fox decides, is no longer in trouble for switching Fox’s good caf out for that decaf swill last week.
“Now Commander,” Shaak starts, stepping forward — and kark she’s so much taller than she looks over holo comms, Fox thinks distantly that she should probably pick him up without a sweat or even a dash of the Force and that fact is so much more attractive than it has any right to be — with a tilt of her head, montrals hanging over her shoulders, “shall we walk while we discuss?”
Fox blinks and is infinitely grateful for his bucket when he looks past Shaak and meets the gaze of Colt’s bucket. He looks far too karking smug for Fox’s liking but—
Shaak’s eyes are kind and her smile is fierce and she is so much more than he thought she was.
He squares his shoulders, answers with an even voice, ‘Of course General, right this way.”
She huffs and follows after him, her arms tucked in her sleeves, “Shaak please, Commander,” she reminds him teasingly and Fox grins, thinks she might catch it even though his bucket is still on, karking Force osik.
“Fox then, Shaak.”
She pauses for only a second, turns to look at him with a grin wide and delighted on her face, “Well then Fox,” she murmurs, “I am overjoyed for the chance to work with you in person finally.”
There’s a choking sound over the comms and Fox delights in it.
It is, slightly, possible that Fox owes Colt just a tad for this.
Something to think on, might need to let the little shit off for the earlier smugness just this once, but no. Colt would take that as a sign to keep going.
Shaak laughs as they walk and she murmurs, teeth glinting sharp under the lights, “I find that the best revenge against siblings is often the one least expected, no?”
Fox grins, and nods, “Oh definitely.”
Yeah, he probably owed Colt something for this, because this was wonderful and precious and Fox has never been happier to take Colt’s advice for something.
Shaak hums softly to herself, one of her hands resting gentle on Fox’s vambrace and he has never been happier to be on this karking planet before.